


You can hear it in the silence, see it with the lights out.

by Wholicity



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Light Angst, oliver having nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-16
Updated: 2014-11-16
Packaged: 2018-02-25 13:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2624102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wholicity/pseuds/Wholicity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "one night he wakes, strange look on his face, pauses and says you're my best friend. And you knew what it was, he is in love"<br/>Set sometime after 3x05. Probably at the end-ish of Season 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You can hear it in the silence, see it with the lights out.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys like this one, I was crying while writing it.  
> (And obviously, I listened to You Are In Love by Taylor Swift while writing this.)

Oliver had been shot. It was only his leg and It had been a through and through, but there was so much blood. And Felicity was tired. Tired of almost losing him again and again. 

And when she realized Oliver would have to spend his night resting on the blow up mattress she had bought him because there was no way he could go home to Thea looking like that, her heart broke.  
Oliver was always so alone. And that was unbearable for her to think about.

So she told Diggle she was taking him home. He didn’t say no. He looked relieved, like he understood. Like he didn’t want to leave him all alone down there either.

 

So here he was, laying on her bed with a glass of water on the bedside table and painkillers in hand, leg propped up on a pillow, tanned skin contrasting to her baby pink sheets. 

“Do you need anything else, Oliver?” She sounds tired.  
He shakes his head no.  
“I’ll be in the living room if you need anything. Get some rest, Oliver.” She says, voice concerned. 

She turns around but before she can cross the room he grabs her wrist.  
“Wait”, He pleads.  
She turns to look at him, eyes stopping at his hand holding her wrist. He lets go. She meets his eyes.  
“Stay, Felicity. Don’t go.”  
The crack in his voice not going unnoticed, his words way heavy on her heart.  
She swallows. Then nods gently. She walks over to the other side of her bed, slips off her shoes and undoes her ponytail. She sets her glasses on her bedside table and slips herself under the covers, then turns her head to find him looking at her.  
“Goodnight Felicity.” He says, grateful for her presence.  
“Goodnight Oliver.” She whispers back.  
He smiles a little and shuts his eyes.  
She watches him until his breathing slows and without even trying to, she falls asleep.

 

Felicity wakes to the sound of her name being called in agonizing torture.  
With a start, she realizes it’s Oliver’s voice. She sits up quickly and rubs at her eyes until her vision clears.  
Oliver’s body is trembling, his face contorted. She knows he’s having a nightmare.  
She doesn’t really know what to do, so she moves over to him and starts methodically smoothing out the lines in his forehead. Carefully, so as not to startle him, she starts talking to him.  
“Shhh.. Oliver. Shh.. Oliver, I’m here. I’m here. I’m okay. You’re okay.”  
She repeats this over and over until his breathing calms down and he opens his eyes.  
In a second his body tenses and his hands are around her neck. She gasps.

“Oliver.” She’s choking out her words.  
“Stop. Oliver, it’s me.”  
Realization flashes in his eyes and he releases her.

She lays back down next to him and tries to catch her breath.  
She can hear him heaving next to her and knows he’s doing the same.  
She leans over and places her palm on his chest. His eyes latch onto hers.  
“Oliver. Has it always been this bad? The nightmares I mean.” She speaks quietly so as not to frighten him.  
He lets out a strangled breath.  
“Yes. When I first got back, I almost killed my mother when she tried waking me.” He says, His voice laced with guilt.  
He looks at her with so much intensity, apology written in his eyes. 

She sighs. How could she not have known? This whole time, Oliver had been having nightmares. 

She places her other hand on his chest and moves her leg over to his side, careful not to touch his wound, so she’s now on top of him and lowers herself down gently.  
She lays her head on his chest and feels his muscles tighten, then relax, welcoming her presence. 

She just lays there, listening to his heartbeat, knowing she’s crossing whatever line he had laid when he told her he couldn’t be with her, but not caring much, because here was Oliver, the strongest man she’s ever known, drowning in nightmares.

A tear slips out of her eye and he must have felt it, because he starts running his fingers through her hair. Making her skin tingle at the contact, but effectively calming her down.  
She lifts her head up a little to get a better look at his shirtless torso and starts tracing lines over his scars.  
Muscles tightening with each touch.  
He grunts. “Felicity.”  
She kisses his Bratva tattoo before looking up at him.  
“They don’t bother you?” his voice heavily affected and rough.  
She smiles a little, then proceeds to kiss every single scar she can find.  
“No. Whatever experiences you went through, I’m glad you did, because they shaped the person you are today.” 

She meets his gaze and finishes, “And you know how I feel about him.” 

His eyes widen a bit. It doesn’t escape his attention that those are the exact words he used three months ago. An ode to them.  
But that’s the closest she’s ever gotten to telling him how she feels. Although she never needed to, because he knew. Of course he did. You could see it with the lights out. 

She moves a little up his body and places both hands around his face. His eyes flicker down to her lips and she smiles.  
“You’re my best friend, Oliver. You know you can tell me anything right?”  
She’s referring to him having nightmares.  
His eyes flicker back up to her crystalline eyes.  
“I know.”  
“Okay.”  
“I’m in love with you.” The words tumble out of his mouth before he can stop them. 

She sucks in a breath and tilts her head up to look at the ceiling.  
“Oliver. No. You can’t keep doing this”, she looks back down at him, tears pooling in her clouded eyes, “my heart can’t take it.”  
A single tear slips down her cheek and he catches it with his thumb.  
“I know. But I can’t do this anymore. I can’t not love you. I’ve tried. I've tried so hard Felicity.” He replies, obviously frustrated with himself, he huffs and finishes, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”  
“I know.” She says. Because she does. She knows exactly what he means, “But Oliver, please, stop trying. Don’t try. I don’t want you to.”  
Question in his eyes, he reaches up to wipe away another tear.  
Before he can pull his hand back down, Felicity places her own hand over his.  
She closes her eyes. “Love me. I want you to. I need you to, Oliver.”  
When she opens them back, his eyes are boring into her, and she can see, see how much he wants to let this happen.

She huffs, trying to find the words to convince him.

“Oliver. It doesn’t matter. I’ll always be in the same danger working with you whether I’m in love with you or not. And I am. And you are too. In love with me I mean, not yourself, that would be weird but—“  
“Felicity.” He cuts her off, a gentle reminder to get to the point please, because did she just say she’s in love with him? 

“Right, I—I love you Oliver. I love you more than I have ever loved before, and it scares me, and you scare me. But when you get shot, Oliver, my heart stops beating for a while, and I can’t, I can’t keep living without you, with the risk of losing you every day, without ever having really had you.”  
At this point, the tears are a relentless stream, but it feels good. To let it all out. Laying her feelings right down in front of her, and the man she loves. 

He sucks in a breath and finally speaks,“Okay.”  
“What do you mean ‘okay’?", she asks, annoyed that that’s all he has to say.  
“You’re right. I want you. I want to be able to love you, whenever, always. And you’re right.”  
“Are you sure?” she asks, heart skipping a beat or two at his words.

He cups her face and pulls her down to him. They’re so close, breaths mingling, breathing in the same air, lips oh so close. 

“I love you, Felicity. I love you so much, and I want you. Now. I don’t care about the technicalities, but right now, all I know is, I love you.”  
She gasps, at all those ‘I love yous’, at the way he’s looking at her, at the way she feels when he’s touching her like this.  
She lowers her lips onto his and she doesn’t know where she begins and he ends and he tastes so good and she just can’t get enough.

And they’re in love.

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys want my tumblr, it's dontaskmetosay-idontloveyou.tumblr.com  
> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
